Month: March 2020

Zorro here. Ziggy and I love to hunt. It’s what kitties do. But being indoor kitties, we don’t get to do it very often. We have to content ourselves with watching the lizards on the other side of the windows and sliding glass doors.

We have a toy one that we like to bat around. It slides across the floor really nice, so it’s a lot of fun. But it doesn’t move unless we slap at it, so it’s not nearly as much fun as the ones we see outside.

Sometimes we have some excitement, though, when we’re in North Carolina. Every so often, a little field mouse will get into the house. When that happens, Ziggy and I go nuts! Although we’re pretty fast, the mice are usually faster, and they can get into little tiny spaces that we can’t. Once in a while, though, we’ll catch one. A lot of cats kill mice and eat them, but Ziggy and I aren’t interested in that. Mommy feeds us too good. But mice make really great toys, because they move on their own! The only way they would be better is if someone rolled them in catnip.

One time a snake got in. I was the one who found it. He was a pretty good opponent. He kept striking at me, but I didn’t let him get away. I had him trapped in the corner. When Mommy checked to see what I was doing, she got all freaked out. She was afraid the snake bit me. But I’m too fast for that.

Mommy grabbed me and locked me in another room until she and Aunt Kim caught the snake. Aunt Kim got out her snake book and found that it was an Eastern rat snake, which isn’t poisonous, so they took it outside and let it go in the woods.

When Mommy came in, she scolded me and said I should never play with snakes. I always try hard to obey, but I can’t make any promises if one gets inside again. If it moves, it’s way too tempting.

Recently I was looking for a romantic suspense book featuring K-9 search and rescue and found All That I Dread, by Linda K. White. I wasn’t familiar with Linda’s writing before, but I’m definitely a fan now. All That I Dread had everything I look for in a story—relatable characters, an intriguing plot with twists and turns, and lots of emotion. I could tell the author really did her research. From search and rescue information to police and FBI procedures, it was clear the author knew her stuff.

Early in the story, K-9 handlers Nate and Jessica are participating in a search and rescue training exercise when they find a young woman’s body in the woods. Turns out, there have been others found in varying locations over the years, and FBI agent Scott is determined to find the connection between them. He is driven to the point of obsession, due to a long-ago tragedy in his own life. All three of these characters were so real. Nate and Jessica were both dealing with PTSD issues and in need of healing—Nate from his experiences in the military, and Jessica’s from another traumatic event.

The story has a great faith thread, too, portraying how people can find healing and forgiveness, done in a way that is completely natural and not preachy.

All That I Dread is a must-read. I give it five stars.

Jessica Chamberlain and her German shepherd, Luke, volunteer with the Battlefield Search and Rescue group in Virginia. Called out to help an FBI team investigating a series of abductions, Jess discovers she’s not finished with the past she thought she’d escaped.

Ziggy here. Every so often, boxes show up on our doorstep. It happens in both North Carolina and Florida. Zorro and I always get excited, because sometimes there’s stuff in there for us. Like cat food. Lots of cat food. Bunches and bunches of cans. Litter too, which is almost as exciting as food, because nothing is better than a clean, fresh litter box.

But empty boxes are pretty exciting, too. As soon as Mommy or Daddy take all the stuff out of one, Zorro and I get in. This one had toys in the bottom of it, but that didn’t matter to me. It was still a box. It didn’t matter to Zorro, either, because as soon as I got out, he got in.

Cardboard boxes are the best, but we’ll take plastic ones, too. In fact, laundry baskets are like boxes. This one has soft, clean clothes in it, so it was much more comfortable than the box with the trucks.

I think all kitties love boxes. Zorro told me that Midnight used to love boxes, too. I never knew Midnight. He was an older kitty who was Zorro’s buddy before Mommy and Daddy adopted me. Here’s a picture of him in one of his favorite places—a box! Mommy named this picture, “How to fit 17 pounds of feline blubber into a 7×10 box.”

Zorro and I don’t fill out boxes the way Midnight used to. But I think we look just as cute!

I recently learned about a fun blog titled “Investigating Food Used in Novels,” by Sally Jo Pitts. Last week, she featured my book, Lethal Legacy, where the heroine Andi Wheaton makes hero Bryce Caldwell a giant pancake. She tells him, “It’s super easy. You mix up the ingredients, then bake it in a cast-iron skillet. Slather melted butter over it when it’s finished, sprinkle with sugar and voilà, breakfast.”

Sally Jo recreated the giant pancake using a Kodiac Cakes dark chocolate flapjack and waffle mix. In her words, “…the results were yummy.” You can check out her post here.

Giant pancakes for breakfast used to be a regular occurrence at our house, but in recent years we’ve gotten away from making them. Seeing the picture of Sally Jo’s gave me a serious craving for a giant pancake again. Except now, I eat grain free, almost keto. So I had to make some substitutes. Here is the original recipe:

2 eggs

½ cup of flour

½ cup of milk

¼ tsp nutmeg

4 Tbsp butter cut in small pieces

2 Tbsp confectioner’s sugar

Preheat oven to 425 degrees. Melt butter in cast iron skillet. Beat eggs, then beat in flour, milk and nutmeg. Pour mixture into skillet and bake for 15 to 20 minutes. When top is slightly browned, sprinkle with confectioner’s sugar. (serves 2 or 3)

When I made mine, I substituted ¼ cup of almond flour and ¼ cup of coconut flour for the regular flour. At home, I would have used almond milk instead of regular milk, but since I’m at my sister’s house in North Carolina I used her regular milk. Instead of the sugar, I drizzled raw honey over the top. Here’s how it turned out:

The texture was grainier than the way I used to make them, because of the different flour, but the taste was similar. It gave me a tasty and reasonably healthy alternative to my usual green smoothie. Looks like giant pancakes will be making a comeback at my house.

Someone wants her family secrets buried

He’s her only chance to survive

Andrea Wheaton thought her parents’ tragic deaths were accidental—until she’s attacked during a burglary at their home. Now she’s also being targeted. Her ex-sweetheart Sheriff Deputy Bryce Caldwell insists on protecting her, though she refuses to trust him again. But with a killer closing in, can she and Bryce uncover her family’s secrets before it’s too late for them both?

It’s Zaturday, the day we (Ziggy and Zorro) take over Mommy’s Facebook page!

Zorro here. Mommy says yesterday was Friday the 13th. I don’t know exactly what that means, because for us, there are just two kinds of days—days in Florida and days in North Carolina. Well, three. There are also the days that we spend in the car getting to Florida or North Carolina.

But apparently Friday the 13th is supposed to be an unlucky day. Mommy says that’s not true, because she and Daddy got married on Friday the 13th and it didn’t bring them any bad luck. Some people believe black cats are bad luck, too. But Ziggy and I think that’s crazy.

Like how they say it’s bad luck if a black cat crosses your path. The only time that’s true in our house is when Ziggy runs in front of Mommy and trips her. Then it’s bad luck for both of them—Mommy almost falls and Ziggy gets accidentally kicked across the room. That happened not too long ago. Now Mommy is wearing a big black boot and walking funny. But I’m smarter than Ziggy. I’ve figured out how to stay out of the way of the humans’ feet.

But people say nice things about black cats, too. Like that dreaming about one is lucky. (I help Mommy dream about me by sleeping on her pillow.) And that a black cat on your porch brings prosperity. (We can’t help Mommy and Daddy there. They don’t let us outside.) And how about this one: In olde England, it was believed that a sty in the eye would be cured if rubbed with a black cat’s tail. (Ziggy wouldn’t like that. He doesn’t want people messing with his tail.)

But Ziggy and I think all those superstitions are silly, whether good or bad. Black cats are just like any other cats. We like to play, eat, get scratched under the chin, curl up in a sunny spot and spend lots of time sleeping.

I’m not superstitious. I walk under ladders, have two black cats and got married on June 13th. And yes, it was a Friday.

In our house, Friday the 13th is a day to celebrate. And when that Friday the 13th falls during the month of June, it’s doubly special. The last time that happened was 2014. It won’t happen again until 2025. Some people told us we were crazy planning a wedding for Friday the 13th. But everything went off without a hitch. Well, almost.

At the time, my husband-to-be was in the Florida National Guard. Right before we were going to order his ring, riots broke out in the Liberty City part of Miami, and his unit was activated. By the time he was able to come back home, we were running out of time. We got the ring ordered, but it didn’t arrive until the Monday after our wedding. So we ended up borrowing one. In all of our wedding pictures, my husband is wearing my ex-boyfriend’s ring!

Sometime back, I booked a transatlantic cruise for our anniversary. The last ship we were on, the top deck was deck 13. It was where they had putt-putt golf, basketball courts, the rock climbing wall and several other activities. In checking out the floor plan of the ship we’ll be going on this time, it goes from deck 12 to deck 14. There is no deck 13.

The fear of the number 13 is a real thing—it’s called triskaidekaphobia. A lot of skyscrapers have no 13th floor, because even if the owner of the building doesn’t have the phobia, they choose to avoid problems with superstitious tenants. In China, in addition to floor 13, they’ll sometimes also skip floors 4 and 14, because of the similarity between the pronunciation of the words “four” and “death” in Chinese.

At least in America, the superstitious only have one number to avoid. Two if you count 666. But that would be a topic for a whole different post.

Ziggy here. Zorro and I have this cool thing at our home in Florida. Mommy calls it a piano, and it makes really neat sounds. Mommy and Daddy both know how to play it. Zorro and I do, too, but it doesn’t sound the same as when Mommy and Daddy play. We still think it sounds good, though.

Sometimes Mommy closes the lid on our piano. When that happens, Zorro and I can’t get it to make any sounds. But it’s a comfy place to stretch out. It’s also a perfect spot to watch things outside, because there are two sliding glass doors on the other side of the room.

We have fun watching the birds. Cats usually like to chase birds, but not these kind. These are huge! There are squirrels out there, too. They run around and climb the trees. If Mommy would let us out, Zorro and I would chase them, but we’d stay away from those birds.

Okay, I got sidetracked. (Zorro says I’m easily distracted.) I was talking about playing the piano thing. Mommy told us about a famous cat who has a song named after him. Domenico Scarlotti claimed that his cat Pulcinella helped him compose his Fugue in G Minor. So it’s known as The Cat Fugue. Scarlotti didn’t call it that, but other people have. Zorro and I think it’s a great name.

We’re hoping that Mommy and Daddy write a song and name it after us. Actually, Mommy just plays, but Daddy makes up music. (He calls it composing.) When he writes a song about his favorite cats, he can’t call it The Cat Fugue, because that’s already taken. But how about Ziggy’s Song? Hmmm, has a nice ring, doesn’t it?